Panasonic 45-200: an apology (one image)

I've seen lots of posts about this lens and contributed to one or two. Posted a moon image a while ago and commented that although the lens was OK at longer lengths, I wasn't terribly impressed.

Well, another forum member posted one of their shots and spurred me on to try again, which is what I did last night. This time, the camera (GF1) was mounted on a sturdy tripod and I used a cable release. I need to eat some humble pie because the result was a huge improvement on my previous effort.....

I'm unconvinced that the OIS in this lens is as good as the shake reduction that I get out of my Pentax SLR, but if you get the technique right it seems to be pretty decent even at 200mm. The following shot was taken at ISO100, 1/125 f8. It's a crop that is pretty much equivalent to viewing at 100%
actual pixel size, and I reckon the lens did fine:

So for others wondering about this lens, I reckon if it's used with care it will deliver the goods.